If Tes were here, we'd already have this (and in greater detail). Instead I am stealing this from the great Aaron Blake at WaPo. I don't think it's a copyright issue as it's all statements already in the public domain, but just in case I'm posting this in a separate thread:

Jan. 24: “It will all work out well.”

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!

124K
4:18 PM - Jan 24, 2020

Jan. 29: “Just received a briefing on the Coronavirus in China from all of our GREAT agencies, who are also working closely with China. We will continue to monitor the ongoing developments. We have the best experts anywhere in the world, and they are on top of it 24/7!”

Jan. 30: “We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully. But we’re working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for it. So that I can assure you.”

Feb. 2: “Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from China. … We can’t have thousands of people coming in who may have this problem, the coronavirus. So we’re gonna see what happens, but we did shut it down, yes.”

Feb. 7: “Nothing is easy, but [Chinese President Xi Jinping] … will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone.”

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
· Feb 7, 2020
Just had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China. He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus. He feels they are doing very well, even building hospitals in a matter of only days. Nothing is easy, but...

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
....he will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone. Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation. We are working closely with China to help!

53.4K
5:31 AM - Feb 7, 2020

Feb. 14: “We have a very small number of people in the country, right now, with it. It’s like around 12. Many of them are getting better. Some are fully recovered already. So we’re in very good shape.”

Feb. 19: “I think it’s going to work out fine. I think when we get into April, in the warmer weather, that has a very negative effect on that and that type of a virus. So let’s see what happens, but I think it’s going to work out fine.”

Feb. 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. … Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!

138K
4:42 PM - Feb 24, 2020

Feb. 25: “You may ask about the coronavirus, which is very well under control in our country. We have very few people with it, and the people that have it are … getting better. They’re all getting better. … As far as what we’re doing with the new virus, I think that we’re doing a great job.”

Feb. 25: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus, including the very early closing of our borders to certain areas of the world.”

Feb. 26: “Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low. … When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. That’s a pretty good job we’ve done."

Feb. 26:
Q: This is spreading — or is going to spread, maybe, within communities. That’s the expectation.
A: It may. It may.
Q: Does that worry you?
A: No. ... No, because we’re ready for it. It is what it is. We’re ready for it. We’re really prepared. ... We hope it doesn’t spread. There’s a chance that it won’t spread too, and there’s a chance that it will, and then it’s a question of at what level.

Feb. 27: “Only a very small number in U.S., & China numbers look to be going down. All countries working well together!”

Feb. 28: “I think it’s really going well. We did something very fortunate: we closed up to certain areas of the world very, very early — far earlier than we were supposed to. I took a lot of heat for doing it. It turned out to be the right move, and we only have 15 people and they are getting better, and hopefully they’re all better. There’s one who is quite sick, but maybe he’s gonna be fine. … We’re prepared for the worst, but we think we’re going to be very fortunate."

Feb. 28: “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”

Feb. 29: “We’re the number-one travel destination anywhere in the world, yet we have far fewer cases of the disease than even countries with much less travel or a much smaller population.”

March 4: “Some people will have this at a very light level and won’t even go to a doctor or hospital, and they’ll get better. There are many people like that.”

March 5: “With approximately 100,000 CoronaVirus cases worldwide, and 3,280 deaths, the United States, because of quick action on closing our borders, has, as of now, only 129 cases (40 Americans brought in) and 11 deaths.”

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
With approximately 100,000 CoronaVirus cases worldwide, and 3,280 deaths, the United States, because of quick action on closing our borders, has, as of now, only 129 cases (40 Americans brought in) and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!

11:34 AM - Mar 5, 2020

March 6: “We did an interview on Fox last night, a town hall. I think it was very good. And I said, ‘Calm. You have to be calm. It’ll go away.' ”

March 7: “It came out of China, and we heard about it. And made a good move: We closed it down; we stopped it. Otherwise — the head of CDC said last night that you would have thousands of more problems if we didn’t shut it down very early. That was a very early shutdown, which is something we got right."

March 8: Retweets a story about Surgeon General Jerome Adams playing down the risk of coronavirus for Trump personally.

The Daily Beast
✔
@thedailybeast
Surgeon General Jerome Adams used his comments to downplay the risk of coronavirus to the president https://trib.al/BkZPHz3

Surgeon General to Jake Tapper: Trump Is ‘Healthier’ Than I Am
The surgeon general used his comments to downplay the risk of coronavirus to the president.

12:39 PM - Mar 8, 2020

March 9: “The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant. Surgeon General, ‘The risk is low to the average American.’ ”

March 9: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!”

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!

9:47 AM - Mar 9, 2020
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March 10: “As you know, it’s about 600 cases, it’s about 26 deaths, within our country. And had we not acted quickly, that number would have been substantially more.”

March 10: “And it hit the world. And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”

Who could have predicted Trump would be such a bad crisis manager? Everyone, actually.

On Wednesday morning, Anthony S. Fauci, an immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned Congress that the coronavirus outbreak is “going to get worse,” and he was immediately proved correct. That day, the number of confirmed cases in the United States surged past 1,000, having more than doubled in just three days. The World Health Organization declared that covid-19 is officially a pandemic. The stock market’s record-setting bull market ended in the crash of 2020. The National Basketball Association suspended its season after a star player for the Utah Jazz, Rudy Gobert, tested positive for coronavirus. And actor Tom Hanks — an American icon — announced from Australia that he and his wife, Rita Wilson, had been struck by covid-19.

Amid such alarming news, Americans depend on the president to offer reassurance and lay out a realistic plan of action. That is not what President Trump delivered in his Oval Office address on Wednesday night. His speech was a catalogue of errors that only made an already grim situation even worse.

To be sure, it wasn’t quite as bad as it could have been. Trump did not again call coronavirus concern a “hoax” perpetrated by his political opponents, or compare it to the common flu, or suggest that it would “miraculously” disappear on its own very soon. His tone was appropriately solemn. But he could not resist boasting and preening about the U.S. response and falling back on his nativist comfort zone.

Trump cited the relatively low number of confirmed U.S. cases so far as evidence that the country is successfully dealing with the disease. "Taking early intense action,” he said, “we have seen dramatically fewer cases of the virus in the United States than are now present in Europe.” In reality, the limited number of confirmed cases in the United States is evidence of an appalling failure to test as many people as we should. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website listed only eight tests conducted on Tuesday throughout the whole country. South Korea is testing 10,000 people a day.

The major step that Trump announced Wednesday — banning most air travel from some European countries for 30 days — made no sense on multiple levels. One of the countries he excluded, the United Kingdom, has more cases (456) than many of the countries included in the flight ban, and anyone can travel from one of those other countries to the U.K. and fly to the United States. It’s hard to see any rational reason to exclude the U.K. and Ireland, save that Trump owns golf resorts in both countries.

"The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for." - Barbara Kingsolver

I'll try to avoid being too political but dear God is Obama making me miss having a sane man in the Whitehouse. At the time trump is pushing bogus cures and talking about lifting social distancing "for the economy" Obama is actually posting sane advice, offering comfort and inspiration and all around ACTING LIKE A GODDAMN PRESIDENT! Not an official timeline post but please don't let people forget this come November, I'll get off my soapbox now. Please forgive me if this isn't the right thread for such a rant but my news feed was making my blood boil again and timeline seemed relevant.

I'll try to avoid being too political but dear God is Obama making me miss having a sane man in the Whitehouse. At the time trump is pushing bogus cures and talking about lifting social distancing "for the economy" Obama is actually posting sane advice, offering comfort and inspiration and all around ACTING LIKE A GODDAMN PRESIDENT! Not an official timeline post but please don't let people forget this come November, I'll get off my soapbox now. Please forgive me if this isn't the right thread for such a rant but my news feed was making my blood boil again and timeline seemed relevant.

You are forgiven! The filing system around here is a bit haphazard anyway.

Yes, Trump is a Deplorable Abomination. It's bad enough that he's contradicting his own scientists, refusing to help Americans who happen to be New Yorkers, promoting racism, etc. He'll never be able to act like a goddamn President, because he's an imposter. But even a small soapbox, like telling people not to hoard food and fucking toilet paper would've been helpful. But even that's too much to ask.

My own state Senator, the esteemed Ms. Kelly Loeffler, rather than tell her constituents 2 months ago of the on coming storm, instead sold off he stock portfolio...

It's the whole party, they care for power and money, the rest of the pleabians can suffer, and they'll continue to strive to keep power, even if all that remains is a country that's made of cinder and ash to wield it in...

Here's a timeline. Yes, it's from Tim Miller at The Bulwark but it's well sourced. I'm putting it here in partial form (only 2020) because I've been informed that some people here don't feel like clicking on links:

2020: COVID-19 Arrives

January 3, 2020: The CDC is first alerted to a public health event in Wuhan, China (This fact was revealed publicly later by HHS Secretary Alex Azar.)

January 6, 2020: The CDC issues a travel notice for Wuhan due to the spreading coronavirus.

Note: The Trump campaign claims that this marks the beginning of the federal government disease control experts becoming aware of the virus. It was 10 weeks from this point until the week of March 16 when Trump began to change his tone on the threat.

January 8, 2020:The CDC issues an official health advisory about COVID-19.

January 10, 2020: Former Trump Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert warns that we shouldn’t “jerk around with ego politics” because “we face a global health threat…Coordinate!”

January 18, 2020: After two weeks of attempts, HHS Secretary Alex Azar finally gets the chance to speak to Trump about the virus. The president redirects the conversation to vaping, according to the WashingtonPost.

January 20, 2020: First U.S. case is reported in Washington state.

January 21, 2020: Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease at the CDC tells reporters, “We do expect additional cases in the United States.”

January 27, 2020: Top White House aides meet with Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to encourage greater focus on the threat from the virus. Joe Grogan, head of the White House Domestic Policy Council warns that “dealing with the virus was likely to dominate life in the United States for many months.”

January 28, 2020: Two former Trump administration officials—Gottlieb and Borio—publish an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal imploring the president to “Act Now to Prevent an American Epidemic.” They advocate a 4-point plan to address the coming crisis:

(1) Expand testing to identify and isolate cases.

Note: This did not happen for many weeks. The first time more than 2,000 tests were deployed in a single day was not until almost six weeks later, on March 11.
(2) Boost flu vaccination efforts to reduce the load on hospitals.
(3) Prepare hospital units for isolation with more gowns and masks.
Note: There was no dramatic ramp-up in the production of critical supplies undertaken. As a result, many hospitals quickly experienced shortages of critical PPE materials.
(4) Vaccine development.

January 29, 2020: The New York Times reports that “mask hoarders” may cause further shortages when the outbreak reaches America.

January 30, 2020: Dr. James Hamblin publishes another warning about critical PPE materials in the Atlantic, titled “We Don’t Have Enough Masks.” At the time, it was clear that mask shortages would be a serious problem. Other countries coping with COVID-19 were already running short on masks and ordering them from America and, in addition, almost the entire CDC stockpile had been consumed during the 2009 flu season.

January 31, 2020: Trump puts into action a temporary travel ban on China. This decision has been the centerpiece of his claim to have responded to the coronavirus. But even here, the truth is somewhat different.

Trump’s Chinese travel ban only banned “foreign nationals who had been in China in the last 14 days.” This wording did not—at all—stop people from arriving in America from China. In fact, for much of the crisis, flights from China landed in America almost daily filled with people who had been in China, but did not fit the category as Trump’s “travel ban” defined it.

January 31, 2020: On the same day Trump was enacting his fake travel ban, Foreign Policy reports that face masks and latex gloves are sold out on Amazon and at leading stores in New York City and suggests the surge in masks being sold to other countries needs “refereeing” in the face of the coming crisis.

February 4, 2020: Gottlieb and Borio take to the WSJ again, this time to warn the president that “a pandemic seems inevitable” and call on the administration to dramatically expand testing, expand the number of labs for reviewing tests, and change the rules to allow for tests of people even if they don’t have a clear known risk factor.

Note: Some of these recommendations were eventually implemented—25 days later.
February 4 or 5, 2020:Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response, and other intelligence officials brief the Senate Intelligence Committee that the virus poses a “serious” threat and that “Americans would need to take actions that could disrupt their daily lives.”

February 5, 2020: Senator Chris Murphy tweets:

Chris Murphy
✔
@ChrisMurphyCT
Just left the Administration briefing on Coronavirus. Bottom line: they aren't taking this seriously enough.

Notably, no request for ANY emergency funding, which is a big mistake. Local health systems need supplies, training, screening staff etc. And they need it now.

36.6K
10:09 AM - Feb 5, 2020

February 12, 2020: Gottlieb (remember, he’s the former head of Trump’s FDA) testifies before Congress that actions must be taken to address medical supply chain issues and the possibility of shortages.

February 20, 2020: Borio and Gottlieb write in the Wall Street Journal that tests must be ramped up immediately “while we can intervene to stop spread.”

It’s important to understand that the Trump campaign brags about the fact that the administration lifted CDC restrictions on tests. This is a factually true statement.
But it elides that fact that they did so on March 3—two critical weeks after the third Borio/Gottlieb op-ed on the topic, during which time the window for intervention had shrunk to a pinhole.

February 23, 2020: Harvard School of Public Health professor issues warning on lack of test capability: “As of today, the US remains extremely limited in#COVID19 testing. Only 3 of ~100 public health labs haveCDC test kits working and CDC is not sharing what went wrong with the kits. How to know if COVID19 is spreading here if we are not looking for it.

February 24, 2020: The Trump administration sends a letter to Congress requesting a small dollar amount—between $1.8 billion and $2.5 billion—to help combat the spread of the coronavirus. This is, of course, a pittance compared to the massive recovery package still being debated at the time of this writing. At the time the administration was widely criticized by members of Congress for not going big enough to deal with the problem.

February 25, 2020: Messonier says she expects “community spread” of the virus in the United States and that “disruption to everyday life might be severe.” Trump is reportedly furious and Messonier’s warnings are curtailed in the ensuing weeks.

February 26, 2020: Congress, recognizing the coming threat, offers to give the administration $6 billion more than Trump asked for in order to prepare for the virus.

Trump mocks Congress in a White House briefing, saying “If Congress wants to give us the money so easy—it wasn’t very easy for the wall, but we got that one done. If they want to give us the money, we’ll take the money.”
Note: The wall did not get “done.” Trump never got sufficient funding for completion of his promised border wall and in any case, as of early February 2020, only 110 miles of new fencing had been constructed.

February 27, 2020: In a leaked audio recording Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the Intelligence Committee and author of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) and the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act (reauthorization of PAHPA), was telling people that COVID-19 “is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.”

March 3, 2020: Vice President Pence is asked about legislation encouraging companies to produce more masks. He says the Trump administration is “looking at it.”

Note: Recall that the concern about masks was raised publicly by high-profile former Trump appointees, on January 28.

March 4, 2020: HHS says they only have 1 percent of respirator masks needed if the virus became a “full-blown pandemic.”

March 7, 2020: Fox News host Tucker Carlson, flies to Mar-a-Lago to implore Trump to take the virus seriously in private rather than embarrass him on TV. Even after the private meeting, Trump continued to downplay the crisis, forcing Carlson to obliquely criticize him publicly on his show two nights later.

Note: Carlson, after hearing from an expert with “access to intelligence” who was concerned about the virus began covering the issue on his show February 3rd, over a month prior to the private meeting.This is a good glimpse into how a competent populist might’ve acted.

March 9, 2020: Tom Bossert, Trump’s former Homeland Security adviser, publishes an op-ed saying it is “now or never” to act. He advocates for social distancing and school closures to slow the spread of the contagion.

Trump says that developments are “good for the consumer” and compares COVID-19 favorably to the common flu.
March 16, 2020: Trump announces his support for a 15-day period of social distancing in order to slow the spread of coronavirus.

March 17, 2020: Facing continued shortages of the PPE equipment needed to prevent healthcare providers from succumbing to the virus, Oregon Senators Jeff Merkeley and Ron Wyden call on Trump to use the Defense Production Act to expand supply of medical equipment.

March 18, 2020: Trump signs the executive order to activate the Defense Production Act, but declines to use it. At the White House briefing he is asked about Senator Chuck Schumer’s call to urgently produce medical supplies and ventilators.

Trump responds: “Well we’re going to know whether or not it’s urgent.”
Note: At this point 118 Americans had died from COVID-19.

March 22, 2020: Six days after calling for a 15-day period of distancing, Trump tweets that this approach “may be worse than the problem itself.”

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!

322K
10:50 PM - Mar 22, 2020

March 24, 2020: Trump tells Fox News that he wants the country opened up by Easter Sunday (April 12).

Trump says, “You will have packed churches all over our country, I think it would be a beautiful time and it is just about the timeline that I think is right.”

As Trump was speaking to Fox, there were 52,145 confirmed cases in the United States and the doubling time for daily new cases was roughly four days.
The pace of the viral spread was increasing.
Testing was still in the process of ramping up, and unavailable in many areas.
Doctors were still “desperate” for masks and other basic PPE supplies.

Chapter 8 of the 9/11 Commission Report was titled, “The System Was Blinking Red.” The quote came from former CIA Director George Tenet, who was characterizing the summer of 2001, when the intelligence community’s multiple reporting streams indicated an imminent aviation terrorist attack inside the United States. Despite the warnings and frenzied efforts of some counterterrorism officials, the 9/11 Commission determined “We see little evidence that the progress of the plot was disturbed by any government action. … Time ran out.”

Last week, the Washington Post reported on the steady drumbeat of coronavirus warnings that the intelligence community presented to the White House in January and February. These alerts made little impact upon senior administration officials, who were undoubtedly influenced by President Donald Trump’s constant derision of the virus, which he began on Jan. 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

By now, there are three painfully obvious observations about Trump’s leadership style that explain the worsening coronavirus pandemic that Americans now face. First, there is the fact that once he believes absolutely anything—no matter how poorly thought-out, ill-informed, or inaccurate—he remains completely anchored to that initial impression or judgment. Leaders are unusually hubristic and overconfident; for many, the fact that they have risen to elevated levels of power is evidence of their inherent wisdom. But truly wise leaders authentically solicit feedback and criticism, are actively open thinkers, and are capable of changing their minds. By all accounts, Trump lacks these enabling competencies.

Second, Trump’s judgments are highly transmissible, infecting the thinking and behavior of nearly every official or advisor who comes in contact with the initial carrier. Unsurprisingly, the president surrounds himself with people who look, think, and act like he does. Yet, his inaccurate or disreputable comments also have the remarkable ability to become recycled by formerly honorable military, intelligence, and business leaders. And if somebody does not consistently parrot the president’s proclamations with adequate intensity, they are fired, or it is leaked that their firing could be imminent at any time—most notably the recent report of the president’s impatience with the indispensable Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

And, third, the poor judgments soon contaminate all the policymaking arms of the federal government with almost no resistance or even reasonable questioning. Usually, federal agencies are led by those officials whom the White House believes are best able to implement policy. These officials have usually enjoyed some degree of autonomy; not under Trump. Even historically nonpartisan national security or intelligence leadership positions have been filled by people who are ideologically aligned with the White House, rather than endowed with the experience or expertise needed to push back or account for the concerns raised by career nonpolitical employees.

"The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for." - Barbara Kingsolver

This is what is angering me that people, especially so-called leaders, aren’t saying. THIS WAS LARGELY AVOIDABLE. Not the virus or all the deaths and struggles, but the scope and scale of the consequences. It should NEVER have come to this.

What did Trump and Congress know about the coronavirus, and when did they know it? ...

According to a Post report, quite possibly a lot, and for quite a while: Intelligence agencies “were issuing ominous, classified warnings in January and February while President Trump and lawmakers played down the threat.”

These intelligence assessments about the global danger posed by the virus made the rounds in the executive and legislative branches, sources told The Post, but the American people weren’t told about them. Now Americans should know precisely what their government knew about an impending crisis that would jeopardize their livelihoods and lives.

Here's a timeline. Yes, it's from Tim Miller at The Bulwark but it's well sourced. I'm putting it here in partial form (only 2020) because I've been informed that some people here don't feel like clicking on links:

"The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for." - Barbara Kingsolver

First, the media, already drawing criticism for broadcasting his daily news conferences live since they contain gobs of misinformation (some of it dangerous to the public), should recognize that these events are campaign events, not opportunities to extract information from the president. He admits that his thinking is wrapped up in his reelection; since everything done toward that end is therefore a political exercise the media should stop covering events as though they were presidential news conferences.

Second, mayors and governors are increasingly and explicitly contradicting him. As he champs at the bit to get back to campaigning and to trying to revive an economy (under the delusion that you can do so when thousands are sick and hospitals are overflowing), other political leaders are emphatic that we are not going back to business as usual anytime soon, let alone by April 12.

"The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for." - Barbara Kingsolver

Here's a timeline. Yes, it's from Tim Miller at The Bulwark but it's well sourced. I'm putting it here in partial form (only 2020) because I've been informed that some people here don't feel like clicking on links:

I like links! Although I ignore links when someone posts a bare link with no indication of what's at the target and why it might be interesting. If they don't consider it worth glossing the link, I infer that it's not worth following the link.

Thanks for the timeline. Very interesting insight into the (non-)workings of the executive. Link or not, I appreciate it when someone makes the effort to prècis long information to its key points.

This is neither shocking nor surprising coming from this bunch of malevolent assholes, but I'm putting it here because this may be yet another milestone (or gravestone) in this debacle:

WASHINGTON — The White House had been preparing to reveal on Wednesday a joint venture between General Motors and Ventec Life Systems that would allow for the production of as many as 80,000 desperately needed ventilators to respond to an escalating pandemic when word suddenly came down that the announcement was off.

The decision to cancel the announcement, government officials say, came after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it needed more time to assess whether the estimated cost was prohibitive. That price tag was more than $1 billion, with several hundred million dollars to be paid upfront to General Motors to retool a car parts plant in Kokomo, Ind., where the ventilators would be made with Ventec’s technology.

Government officials said that the deal might still happen but that they are examining at least a dozen other proposals. And they contend that an initial promise that the joint venture could turn out 20,000 ventilators in short order had shrunk to 7,500, with even that number in doubt. Longtime emergency managers at FEMA are working with military officials to sort through the competing offers and federal procurement rules while under pressure to give President Trump something to announce.